... Fertilization is important to increase crop yields, but long-term application of fertilizers probably aggravated the risk of heavy metals in acidic soils. In this study, the effect of 22-year fertilization and cropping on accumulation, availability, and uptake of heavy metals in red soil was investigated. The results showed that pig manure promoted significantly cadmium (Cd) accumulation (average ...

... Elevated levels of adsorbable organic bromine compounds (AOBr) have been detected in German lakes, and cyanobacteria like Microcystis, which are known for the synthesis of microcystins, are one of the main producers of natural organobromines. However, very little is known about how environmental realistic concentrations of organobromines impact invertebrates. Here, the nematode Caenorhabditis eleg ...

... A variety of mineral components (Al, Fe) and trace metals (V, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) were simultaneously measured in PM₂.₅ and PM₁₀ fractions at three different locations (traffic, urban, and suburban) in the Greater Paris Area (GPA) on a daily basis throughout a year. Mineral species and trace metal levels measured in both fractions are in agreement with those reported in the literature and ...

... One of the most popular transportation methods of crude oil is water transport, leading to potential spills of these pollutants in the seas and oceans and water areas of ports, during their extraction, transportation, transhipment and use. The growth of the Lithuanian economy and the expansion of competitiveness were hardly imagined without the development of the Klaipeda seaport. However, the int ...

... Hydropsyche angustipennis (Insecta, Trichoptera) larvae were used as indicators of stream contamination in the city of Łódź, Poland. The larvae of H. angustipennis were present at 9 sampling sites established for this study. Significant differences between the sampling sites were noted for environmental parameters as well as concentration of chemicals in water and biodiversity of aquatic invertebr ...

... The degradation of bisphenol A (BPA) by Chlorella sorokiniana and BPA-degrading bacteria was investigated. The results show that BPA was partially removed by a monoculture of C. sorokiniana, but the remaining BPA accounted for 50.2, 56.1, and 60.5 % of the initial BPA concentrations of 10, 20, and 50 mg L⁻¹, respectively. The total algal BPA adsorption and accumulation were less than 1 %. C. sorok ...

... Bioremediation, involving the use of microorganisms to detoxify or remove pollutants, is the most interesting strategy for hydrocarbon remediation. In this aim, four hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria were isolated from oil-contaminated soil in Tunisia. They were identified by the 16S rDNA sequence analysis, as Lysinibacillus bronitolerans RI18 (KF964487), Bacillus thuringiensis RI16 (KM111604), Bacil ...

... In this paper, the behaviour and distribution patterns of heavy hydrocarbons and several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) priority pollutants, as listed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, were evaluated in 891 soil samples. The samples were collected in three expected polluted rural sites in Campania (southern Italy) as part of the LIFE11 ECOREMED project, funded by the European Commi ...

... The female giant panda Zhangxiang (pedigree number 826) was born on August 20, 2011 in Wolong Nature Reserve, China. On November 6, 2013, Zhangxiang was transported into the acclimatization enclosure in the Liziping Nature Reserve. Before Zhangxiang left the enclosure into the wild, we conducted the first study to compare microhabitats and foraging strategies between Zhangxiang in the enclosure an ...

... Impurity of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) in commercial polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) formulations has been recognized as a relevant source of PCNs in the environment. Congener-specific analysis of most main PCB formulations has been accomplished previously, excluding the Chinese product. The insulating oil in a stored Chinese electric capacitor containing the major Chinese technical formul ...

... The current socio-economic, environmental and public health challenges that countries are facing clearly need common-defined strategies to inform and support our transition to a sustainable economy. Here, the technology-critical elements (which includes Ga, Ge, In, Te, Nb, Ta, Tl, the Platinum Group Elements and most of the rare-earth elements) are of great relevance in the development of emerging ...

... Atmospheric particles were collected in several cities in Japan (Sapporo, Sagamihara, Kanazawa, and Kitakyushu), Korea (Busan), and China (Beijing) using a high-volume air sampler equipped with a quartz fiber filter. The summer and winter samples were analyzed using gas chromatography–high-resolution mass spectrometry for Dechlorane Plus (DP). Decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) was also analyzed fo ...

... Three types of chitosan with high (3.40 × 10⁶), medium (2.11 × 10⁵), and low (5.89 × 10⁴) molecular weights were chosen as ligands to synthesize chitosan magnesium, calcium, iron(III), and zinc coordination complexes. Degradation of four organophosphorous pesticides (dichlorvos, omethoate, dimethoate, and chlorpyrifos) by the above complexes in a heterogeneous system was studied using solid-phase ...

... We investigated dioxin formation and removal in a commercial thermal waste treatment plant employing a gasification and melting process that has become widespread in the last decade in Japan. The aim was to clarify the possibility of dioxin formation in a process operation at high temperatures and the applicability of catalytic decomposition of dioxins. Also, the possible use of dioxin surrogate c ...

... The purpose of the present study was to assess ejaculate contamination by polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans in male infertility. The database of 168 infertile and 49 fertile men was included in the study. Dioxin content was determined using gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC/HRMS). In the ejaculate of infertile men, the content of dioxins and furans was 2.2–2.3 times h ...

... The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of financial development on CO₂ emission in 129 countries classified by the income level. A panel CO₂ emission model using urbanisation, GDP growth, trade openness, petroleum consumption and financial development variables that are major determinants of CO₂ emission was constructed for the 1980–2011 period. The results revealed that the variables ...

... This paper reports the changes in microbial parameters and enzymatic activities during vermicomposting of effluent treatment plant sludge (ETPS) of bakery industry spiked with cow dung (CD) by Eisenia fetida. Six vermibins containing different ratios of ETPS and CD were maintained under controlled laboratory conditions for 15 weeks. Total bacterial and total fungal count increased upto 7th week an ...

... Hot water treatment (HWT) of fruit is an effective approach for managing postharvest decay of fruits and vegetables. In the present study, the effects of HWT (45 °C for 10 min) on the growth of Botrytis cinerea and Penicillium expansum in vitro, and gray (B. cinerea) and blue mold (P. expansum) development in kiwifruit were investigated. HWT effectively inhibited spore germination and germ tube el ...

... Integrated risk assessment approaches allow to achieve a sound evaluation of ecological status of river basins and to gain knowledge about the likely causes of impairment, useful for informing and supporting the decision-making process. In this paper, the integrated risk assessment (IRA) methodology developed in the EU MODELKEY project (and implemented in the MODELKEY Decision Support System) is a ...